History
It is difficult to trace the immigration to Australia from the region designated by the modern world as the Middle East or traditionally, as Asia Minor, because of the way in which immigration officials on both sides have kept records. The first wave of immigration from Iran to Australia, from 1950-1977, was relatively insignificant in terms of the number of immigrants. Annually, only a few hundred entered Australia as immigrants during this period, along with about a few thousand non-immigrants, including students and visitors. The vast majority of Iran's emigrants left their homeland just after the 1979 revolution. For the period 1978-1980, the average number of Iranians entering Australia as non-immigrants annually increased to more than 5,000. From the period 1980-1988 there was a strong trend of emigration to Australia due to the ongoing Iran-Iraq war, which came about when the murderous regime of Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980. That war lasted eight long years. Iran quickly repelled Iraq's western backed armed forces into Iraqi territory where the majority of the war was fought. Several offers of ceasefire by Iraq were rejected by Iran during that period and the war finally ended with the full backing of the United Nations pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 598. At the war's end in 1988, it took several weeks for the Iranian armed forces to evacuate Iraq.
Iranians in Sydney predominantly speak Persian and practice the Persian culture, which includes Nowruz. Along religious lines, both Muslim and non-Muslim Iranians reside in Australia. Non-Muslims Iranians include Iranian Jews, Iranian Christians, Iranians of the Baha'i faith and Iranians of the Zoroastrian faith.
Several sources have noted, that an estimated several million of the seventy million Iranians residing in Iran have left Iran since the 1979 revolution, the majority of which reside in the United States and Western Europe.
The first case of an Iranian to enter Australia and gain Australian citizenship was Jacques Cadry of Cadrys Handwoven Rugs in 1951.
In 1981 the Minister for Immigration at the time, the Hon Ian Macphee, under Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser announced a Special Humanitarian Assistance (SHP) Program for Iranians to seek immigration to Australia. These included Iranians affected by the devastating impacts of the Iran-Iraq war and other religious minorities. See also Baha'i Faith in Australia. Government agencies have observed closely the resettlement of Iranian immigration to Australia. One report observed many were professionally qualified and displayed a determination to re-establish themselves quickly; they tended to remain in migrant hostels for short periods; they had high expectations of successful settlement, and strong career ambitions. General Iranian immigration to Australia mostly occurred from 1980s to late 1990s. The Iranian-Australian community, in line with similar trends in Iran and other countries around the world, has produced a sizable number of individuals notable in many fields, including Law, Medicine, Engineering, Business and Fine Arts.
Read more about this topic: Iranian Australian
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